Ref ID : 7918
Ye.B. Pavel'yeva and I.V. Telesh; Diet of Planktonic Crustaceans and Rotifers in Small Lakes of Karelia. Hydrobiological Journal 29(4):24-31, 1993 (Originally published in Gidrobiologicheskiy zhurnal 28(5):11-16, 1992)
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Carbon-14 tagging was used to determine the consumption and assimilation of Chlorella, detritus, and natural bacterioplankton by about ten species of planktonic crustaceans and rotifers in small Karelian lakes. The bacterial biomass in Lake Kostomoyarvi was sufficient to meet the daily needs of rotifers. The specific utilization factor of bacteria by the zooplankton was inversely proportional to body weight. The consumption of Chlorella and detritus by the crustaceans ranged from 60 to 300 percent of individuals body weight, and the assimilation factor was 28-88 percent. The zooplankton community of the lake constitutes a powerful purification system that is capable of filtering twice the amount of particulate organic matter that is actually present.